What is the cheapest way for someone in Bangkok to obtain a 180-day re-entry stamp?

@Frank-Steven **********

True enough!

I forgot about that. :P

@Lu**

very little ever changes in Thai immigration law as written. It's all down to implementation details which change without written legal changes.

The no same day return was policy at that border for years. It subsequently became policy at the Laos border. It was applied to visa exempt entries, but not entries on multiple entry visas.

What's "official"? Passed through parliament and published in the Royal Gazette? No this wasn't that. But little is. That doesn't mean it wasn't the reality.

They don't stamp you denied entry in this circumstance, that's done at airports. Not land borders. They just send you back and the other side cancels your exit stamp.

@Ivan ***********

I am quite sure it was no official policy.

I asked for a reason why I did not get in, and IO simply told me "we don't do this at this border crossing".

When it was official policy I expect het would have said so.

Later someone told me that officially they should have put a stamp in my passport specifying why I was denied entry, but I got no stamp at all from Thai immigration.

@Lu**

right but this was a specific policy at that border specifically regarding visa exempt entries. I know because I was denied same day return there myself. But I don't think this ever applied to entry on a visa.

This has happened at other borders as well, such as Laos, they started requiring 1 or 2 nights in Laos before they'd stamp you back in on a visa exempt. But this didn't apply to DTV or other visas.

@Christopher **********

I am quite sure that not offering money was the problem, we arranged a transfer to the next Sadao border crossing and got stamped in there.

@Ivan ***********

There is no law against same day return for specific types of visa.

It is up to decide IO if they think you do not comply with rules, and it is well known especially some land border crossings generate their own rules.

Not offering tea money might have been the problem.

@Ivan ***********

Thanks Ivan. I have had an exit stamp cancelled myself after I had been stamped out an airport only to find my flight had already departed. The flight information screens were displaying incorrect departure time. I suspect if I had been in that same situation at Padang Besar my wife would have immediately put money in an envelope and we would have been stamped back in.

@Chris******

this does happen with visa exempt at that border, I had the same experience many years ago. What happens in this case is you are sent back from the Thai border to Malaysia, and Malaysian immigration cancels your exit stamp from Malaysia, so it's the same as if you never left Malaysia. You then spend one night in Malaysia, and next day Thailand will stamp you in (presumably now subject to the issues with restrictions on border runs).

This is as far as I am aware specific to visa exempt entries, it may not apply to reentry with a multi entry visa.

Historically, visa run companies paid tea money to immigration to facilitate same day return. This was supposedly stopped at one point, but it was well known enough it was covered in the Bangkok Post and other national newspapers.

@Lu**

that's visa exempt, it's still a border bounce if you left and expected to come back same day on a visa exempt. Doesn't matter if you had "time left" or not, your previous entry is extinguished when you leave.

The rules applied are different for multi entry visas. Probably would have been fine if you had a reentry permit on an extension either.

Historically at that border they wanted tea money to let you back same day.

@Luit ****************

Delightful trick to play on someone. Thailand stamped you out, Malaysia stamped you in. Malaysia stamped you out then Thailand wouldn't stamp you back in? What did you do?

@Frank-Steven **********

I was refused to get back in Thailand at Pedang Besar after shopping on visa exemption, but it was not a border bounce, still a lot om time left, but IO said we do not do same day return at this border crossing.

Cheapest way for OP might be to do in country extension, but when you not even have the money for a cheap flight out of the country I am wondering what you are doing to travele to Thailand.